Popular Culture Review Volume 30, Number 1, Winter 2019 | Page 207

Popular Culture Review 30.1
in eminence in contemporary entertainment , can prompt much stronger visceral reactions from audiences , due to its inherently visual nature .
In 1999 , the Surgeon General of the United States acknowledged , based on extensive study , the possibility that viewing suicide in fictional media texts could influence vulnerable youth into mimicking the act ( Hecht 164 ). Suicide contagion can be attributed to social learning theory , where audiences mimic behaviors glorified in media ( Gould et al . 1269 ); The Sorrows of Young Werther represents an early historical example of such a phenomenon . Today , television is one of the primary mediums , along with film and music , which have been researched relating to media influence on suicide , with social learning theory frequently being utilized for the framework . However , such studies are recognized to be laborious , as “ determining whether those who completed suicide after the presentation of a given television program ... were influenced by it is clearly difficult to establish in the case of completed suicides ” ( Blood and Perkis 157 ). Additionally , while different studies have indicated causal causation between viewings of suicide in media and the subsequent attempting of suicide , “ these studies are small or have methodological problems ” ( 158 ), thus failing to demonstrate consistency when replicated . Research indicates that viewing suicide in media alone is unlikely to act as a trigger , and instead must work in tandem with other factors such as location , seasonal trends , and , most frequently , mental illness . However , it is important to note that this research also suggests the possibility for media portrayals of suicide to function as deterrents for viewers :
Not all studies have hypothesized that fictional portrayals of suicide on television have a negative effect . Some have suggest-
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